Currently known minimally invasive procedures for diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions use shapeable instruments, such as steerable devices, flexible catheters or more rigid arms or shafts, to approach and address various tissue structures within the body. For various reasons, it is highly valuable to be able to determine the 3-dimensional spatial position of portions of such shapeable instruments relative to other structures, such as the operating table, other instruments, or pertinent anatomical tissue structures.
There remains a need to apply the information gained by the spatial or shape information of a medical instrument and applying this information to produce improved device control or improved modeling when directing a robotic or similar device. There also remains a need to apply such controls to medical procedures and equipment.